ABA Family Legal Guide

The Rights of Older Americans

Social Security and Supplemental Security Income

When the worker dies, who is eligible for benefits?

The following family members qualify for disability benefits: a spouse who is at least sixty years old; a disabled spouse who is at least fifty; children who are under eighteen (or under nineteen if attending elementary or high school full-time) or are disabled; and parents who are sixty-two or older and who received at least half of their support from the worker at the time of his or her death.